Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic (1997) – WTF Happened to This Horror Movie

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's wild to think that Oscar winner and storyteller extraordinaire Guillermo del Toro almost gave up on Hollywood in the late '90s. After directing his first feature film Cronos, he caught the attention of the Weinstein brothers. Hoping to take his unique style and bring it to an American audience, the Weinsteins hired Del Toro to take on a monster flick that dealt with bugs, evolution, and a deadly pandemic in Mimic (1997) (WATCH IT HERE – OWN IT HERE).

What should have been a simple shoot turned into a never-ending hell for the director. Things became a whirlwind of terror and nightmare scenarios with studio interference, aggressive reshoots, and suspicious last-minute editing. It took almost fifteen years to re-visit and fix the film he had abandoned so long ago. So exactly what happened to Mimic? Let's find out on our latest episode and ask What The F*ck Happened To This Horror Movie?

This episode was written by Bryan Wolford and is edited and narrated by Lance Vlcek. It's Produced by John Fallon and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Mimic stars Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Charles S. Dutton, Josh Brolin, Giancarlo Giannini, and  has the following synopsis: 

Three years ago, entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler genetically created an insect to kill cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Now, the insects are out to destroy their only predator, mankind.

This is what the WTF Happened to This Horror Movie series is all about: 

Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: WTF Happened To This Horror Movie?

Some previous episodes of the series can be seen below, and more can be found on our JoBlo Horror Videos YouTube channel!